| Posted: June 8, 2007 |
China sees soaring development in nanotechnology |
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(Nanowerk News) The National Steering and Coordinating Committee for the Development of Nano-Science and Technology convened a conference to review the R&D advancement and its commercialization in the field on June 5 in Beijing. Present at the meeting included Chinese Minister of Science and Technology WAN Gang, Vice Minister of Science and Technology CHEN Jinpei, CAS Executive Vice President BAI Chunli and Vice President of the National Natural Science Foundation of China ZHU Daoben.
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According to the meeting, China has poured about 1.5 billion yuan (about $197 million) into the research and development of nanoscience and nanotechnology over the past 15 years, achieving encouraging advances in this regard. For instance, the number of research papers published by Chinese scientists at the international journals in 2006 were on a par with those contributed by their US or Japanese colleagues. The number of patents they have filed for has increased from less than 1,000 in 2001 to more than 4,600 in March 2005.
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Under the guidance of the national framework for nanoscience and technology development during the 10th five-year planning period (2001-2005), China made an overall deployment in the fields concerning nanoscience and nanotechnology, such as materials, information, energy sources, medicine and manufacturing. A flagship nanoscience research program has also been launched.
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To step up R&D efforts, the country has set up the National Center for NanoScience and Technology, National Engineering Center for NanoTechnology and its Application, and various centers for nano-technology commercialization. At present, about 3,000 S&T workers from about 50 universities, more than 20 CAS institutes and some 300 enterprises across the country are working for nano-science and technology research and development.
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So far Chinese scientists have scored many encouraging research achievements in the field, according to the participants. At the same time, the National Technical Committee on Nanotechnology of Standardization Administration of China was established. So far a total of 15 standards on nanotechnology have been issued.
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However, the meeting pointed out the shortcomings in China's nanotechnology development, including unbalanced growth at various research directions, a lack of major breakthroughs, sustainability capacity, and technology transfer.
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